


i'm only doing anything i want to do because i do it all the time

by askmeaboutmyoctopustheory



Series: fratt party [3]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Enemies to Friends, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Minor Violence, Multi, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2020-12-23 21:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory/pseuds/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory
Summary: “So. The Winter Soldier.” Frank mused, kicking his feet up in the dusty restaurant they were meeting at.“The Punisher.” Bucky responded with equal nonchalance. “No need to beat around the bush. What’ve you got for me?”---or: the Mob AU where i shove my hyperfixations together





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright!! Hi yall!! 
> 
> First of all, I don't know how the mob works so this is probably not ~accurate~. Also @ my FBI agent please don't put me on any watch lists for the research I've been doing.
> 
> ALSO!!!! I'm a creator for Marvel Trumps Hate this year and both of these pairings are ones I'm offering for my fanwork!! There is more info on the marveltrumpshate tumblr!
> 
> Find me on twitter @_AMAMOT

Frank sat slumped down in his massive chair, hand trailing low enough to stroke the head of one of the pitbulls that flanked him at all times. Of course the dogs were gentle as can be, living up to their reputation as ‘nanny’ dogs. Frank would’ve sooner let his dogs watch over his children than some of his own men. Of course that was before the accident.

“Leave us.” Frank barked at the men at the door.

Only once they had closed him in his office with his consigliere did Frank allow himself to put his head in his hands and groan loudly. The blind man came up behind Frank and began to rub his tight shoulders beneath the luxurious fabric of his tuxedo jacket. Frank tipped his head back and let Matt press their foreheads together as a grounding technique. This was a risky business and he was eternally grateful for someone he could wholeheartedly trust.

“What’do you say about all this Matty?” 

“Do you want my associate’s answer or my lovers answer?” Matt responded with a crooked smile. 

“Either. Both.” Frank responded. “Talk to me, Red.”   
  


“Well... “ Matt walked around Frank’s chair to sit on his huge desk facing him. “My… sources say that the Winter Soldier is also meeting similar resistance.”

“Barnes’ stupid as he is pretty if he thinks-” Frank began before looking at Matt’s face. “Whaddya mean similar resistance?”

“Associates gettin’ rattled. Certain…. Injuries to some soldiers.” Matt trailed off. 

Frank knew that a few of their men had gotten into disagreements and walked away with sprained wrists or ankles. He sure as hell wasn’t dumb enough to think that a threat to one of them was not a threat to them all. He might have to make a call to Barnes.

“Alright. Bring Barnes in. But he comes  _ here.  _ And he brings less than 5 men with him.” Frank conceded. 

\----

Barnes kept his stoic face intact while he listened to the reports from his men out on the streets. The business wasn’t kind, he knew that as soon as he came into the mob after the army. He had tried to keep it as non-violent as he could, having killed enough people in the army as it was but he had been naive. He was at the top of his organization now so he didn’t have to do as much dirty work but he still didn’t like it. 

When Barnes was alone with his right-well, technically left- hand man, he poured himself a glass of whiskey from the bar in one of his restaurants. They knew the high-end Italian restaurant was a bit stereotypical but hiding in plain sight worked sometimes. 

“Well.” Bucky took a drink of his whiskey, letting the rich liquid sit in his mouth before swallowing it. “This is a mess.”   
  
“A bit.” His most trusted advisor and protector Clint responded.

Clint and Bucky had worked together back when they were just foot soldiers. Gears in the machine of the mob. Now Bucky was the one with his hand on the control panel and Clint was right there beside him. 

“You heard anything from others?” Bucky asked after another drink. “This has been going on for too long now. Do we still have the police in this precinct?”

“I’ll keep an eye out.” Clint responded. “Tell Steve to look into the police, they trust him.”

“Who’s giving the orders here?” Bucky asked but he was smiling. He reached his prosthetic hand to touch Clint’s arm. “Hey. Relax, love.”

“Sorry.” The taller man mumbled. “It’s been a while since somethin’ like this happened and…”

Bucky knew what Clint was thinking about. About one of their best hitmen being taken out in the last shake-down. She had patrolled the streets for or with Clint many nights and had eventually pushed him out of harm’s way and taken a hit herself.

“I know babe.” Bucky soothed, pulling Clint into his lap. “Just be safe when you’re out there, ok? No funny business.”   
  
Clint grinned and touched their noses together. “Ok. I’m not letting this go quietly though.”

The next morning when Clint slipped into bed at the wee hours of the night next to Bucky, he found the Boss still awake. 

“What’re you doin’ not gettin’ your beauty sleep?” Clint muttered into Bucky’s stubbled jaw.

“Couldn’t sleep knowin’ you were out there with all this shit goin on.” Bucky admitted. “We need a solution.”   
  
“I might have one.” Clint said after a pause. “You won’t like it.”   
  
“Mmmm… tell me in the morning after coffee.”

\--------

  
  


“Hawkeye.”   
  
“Red.” 

The two consiglieres nodded stoically at each other and then broke into grins. Their respective bosses knew that they were in contact, but didn’t care as long as they didn’t interfere with business. But this was the first of their meetings in a formal consult.

As Castle had requested, Bucky and Clint had come with fewer than 5 men. In fact, they only came with themselves. But they were meeting at a neutral territory in the Bronx. Frank was not happy about not being on his own turf and had brought the dogs for comfort.

“So. The Winter Soldier.” Frank mused, kicking his feet up in the dusty restaurant they were meeting at.   
  
“The Punisher.” Bucky responded with equal nonchalance. “No need to beat around the bush. What’ve you got for me?”   
  
“Well.” Frank leaned forward and steepled his hands. “I think Pierce is in town.”

Bucky’s blood ran cold at the name of the well-known Boss. He was needlessly cruel and Bucky had been unlucky enough to have a run-in with him before getting to the place where he is now. Frank chuckled morbidly at the change that was obvious in Bucky’s expression.

  
“That’s what I thought. Believe me Barnes, I wouldn’t come to you for… assistance if I had other options.”   
  
“I’m flattered.” Bucky said without intonation. “It’s not a weakness to ask for help, Castle.”

“Yeah well. Anyway. I figured you might have some, ah, insight based on your personal experience with Pierce.” Frank mumbled.   
  
“That’s putting it lightly.” Bucky prodded, enjoying watching Castle’s discomfort. “But if what you’re saying is true, we absolutely need to combine our forces. We can’t have a man like that cretin and what he stands for coming into our territory.”   
  
_ “Our  _ territory?” Frank sputtered.   
  
“Oh please, we both know we have an-” Bucky waved his hand around. “Agreement when it comes to our overlapping areas. Now, I’ll keep my ears to the ground and try and get any word I can on the new activities in the area.”   
  
“Don’t forget, I’ve got my eyes on you.”    
  
The two bosses just looked at each other for a moment before Matt coughed loudly. He and Clint were barely keeping back their laughter.   
  
“Are we done here?” Matt asked. “Some of us have work to do.”   
  
Bucky and Frank just nodded curtly and that was that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oops sorry this is late af lol i'm doing nano and it's going horribly
> 
> find me on twitter @_AMAMOT 
> 
> winterhawk bingo fill 'makeshift weapons'

Matt tilted his head when he heard and sensed the other man flip onto the roof and kneel next to him. 

“Surprised your boy let you out of his sight.” He remarked to Clint.   
  


“He didn’t want to.” Clint admitted. “But he knows I have to get out on the streets or else I get stir crazy. He’s got the desk stuff, I’m good with the dirty work.”   
  
“As if we still have to do the worst of it.” Matt chuckled. 

“We still got our fingers in the messy pie. That’s how shit goes sideways.” Clint said softly, thinking about the Widow again and his chest hurt. “What do you know about Pierce?”   
  
Matt sighed. “Frank had a brief run-in with him right after he was discharged from the service.”

“Seems that’s how he operates.” Clint mused. 

“Not a run-in like The Win- Bucky had.” Matt clarified with a heavy voice. “He somehow got mixed up with someone Pierce wanted dead. His family ended up as collateral damage.”

“Jesus.” Clint muttered. “No wonder he’s willing to work together with Buck.”   
  
“Yeah.” Matt said quietly. “Barnes was a hitman for Pierce for a while, right?”   
  
“Yeah he was blackmailed into it.” The night air seemed to be listening in to the heavy conversation. “Pierce takes advantage of freshly discharged vets who need that hierarchical system.”

“So.” Matt started after another beat of silence. “We’ve got rats in our territory and we gotta flush em out.”

“I bet anything they’re posing at support groups and such. Veterans bars. Hell, just get ‘em fresh off the boat home.” 

Clint laughed bitterly. He knew Bucky would know more but part of him didn’t want to bring this to Bucky. Bucky had dealt with enough in his past with Pierce and Clint really only wanted to go to him to tell him that the man had been killed, or at least would no longer come into their territory.

“We got our work cut out for us then.” Matt said, standing up and disappearing over the edge of the building with a salute. 

\----

Frank was pacing a hole in the carpet of the restaurant that had become the rendezvous spot for him and Barnes. He felt like he was being watched and he didn’t like it. Matt was slouched in a booth, undisturbed, so Frank felt like his unease was likely unfounded. 

Matt’s head turned to the door a few seconds before Barnes and Barton walked in, this time flanked by another large blonde man. Was all of Barnes’ roster big and blonde?   
  


“Castle.” Bucky greeted Frank shortly with a handshake. “This is Steve, he’s been talkin to the bluesuits this week about if they’ve noticed anyone or anything.”   
  
Frank nodded at the other man. “And?”   
  
Bucky’s jaw twitched and he exchanged a look with Steve. Barton had slumped into the booth with Matt. Frank tried to make sense of the non-verbal argument that seemed to be occurring before his eyes. Finally Barnes inhaled deeply. 

“This fucker named Brock Rumlow.” He looked to see if the name struck a chord with Frank, it didn’t. “He’s meaner than a-” Bucky’s eyes drifted to the pitbull slobbering on Frank’s shoe. “He’s meaner than a chihuahua and doesn’t give a shit about collateral damage.”   
  
“So this is who’s been takin our people out.” 

“Seems so.” 

“So? One man?” Frank clarified. “What’s he still doin’ alive? Why’re we here instead of sending his severed head in a box to Pierce?”

“Jesus, Castle.” The other blond, Steve muttered under his breath. 

Frank just shrugged and looked at Bucky straight in the eyes. Barnes seemed to shuffle his feet nervously. This Rumlow motherfucker must be a real piece of work to have the Winter Soldier balking. 

“He ain’ exactly makin himself obvious.” Bucky said finally. “But he knows that we’re…” Barnes gestured around them to the restaurant that was empty except for the men they had both brought and the bored looking barkeeps. “Collaborating.” 

Frank snorted. “Alright. If that’s what you wanna call it. Wanna sit? I need a drink.”   
  
One of the bartenders walked over to take their drink orders and Matt suddenly sat up. He tilted his head as the bartender walked away and swore under his breath.

“Red? You ok?”    
  
“I think we’ve got company fellas…” Matt started collapsing his cane and holding it like a club. 

“Easy, devil.” Clint said to Matt but he was inching his hand towards the fork on the table.

“Well well well.” A slimy voice from behind Bucky said, one that made his skin crawl. “Look what the dogs dragged in.”   
  
Bucky clenched his metal fist and stood up harshly. “Brock.” He looked the man up and down and Rumlow had the nerve to smile at him and set their drinks down like nothing was wrong. “We can make this easy.”   
  
“You always went easy James.” Rumlow sneered. “Rough me up a little. You ain’t got the guts anymore.”   
  
“You’re outnumbered.” Bucky said, his hand clenching around the heavy whiskey glass anyway.

“You sure about that?” Brock said with a challenging eye.

“Yeah.” Frank said, standing up next to Bucky and dwarfing him as they both stared Rumlow down. “We can make this real easy.”   
  
Brock’s hand twitched towards his gun just a moment before Matt flung his cane out to it’s full length, whacking Brock in the hand. Bucky smashed his glass against the table with his metal hand and slashed at Rumlow’s leg with the sharp glass. He fell to one knee but the rest of the men were out of the booth and Clint had stabbed Rumlow’s hand inching toward the fallen gun with his fork. 

“Or we can make this hard.” Frank said, as he kicked Rumlow in the face.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hiiiiiii sorry this is short, i just wanted to wrap this up and not leave it hanging. Bit of a warning for like, implied torture etc.
> 
> this also fits the wh bingo square "murder strut" AND THAT BLACKS OUT MY BINGO CAAAARD
> 
> AND i'm sorry(?) to announce that i'll be taking a bit of a hiatus from writing 
> 
> i have a few projects i'm working on but my uploading will be much less frequent than it has been recently
> 
> ilu all

“He’s coming to.” Matt said over the two bickering bosses, listening to Rumlow’s heartbeat from where they had tethered him to a chair.

Clint was just helping the other bartender, who they had roughed up enough to figure out that he wasn’t one of Pierce’s men too, clean up when Matt motioned for him to come back over to them.

“Let me handle this.” Bucky was saying to Frank. “I have a history with him.”   
  
“Exactly why I should just shoot him between the eyes once he tells us why he’s here.” Frank shot back.

Clint sidled up next to Matt and pressed a sentence into the man’s forearm in sign language. They both chuckled and made the two bosses whirled towards them. Matt and Clint just wore similar looks of vague amusement while Bucky and Frank were both fuming slightly. The tension between the two unwilling groups of allies was broken by the sound of Rumlow spitting onto the floor. Bucky whirled around to see Brock with a stupid grin on his face, head lolling to the side.

“You!” Bucky stalked over to Rumlow and tipped the chair back towards the fireplace on the far wall of the restaurant. “What’re you doin’ in these parts?”

Bucky’s Brooklyn accent slipped out in it’s full force as he seethed anger into Brock’s face. The man tied to the chair just laughed in the Winter Soldier’s face. 

“You still walk funny, you know?” Rumlow wheezed. “It had been an experimental alloy- That damn arm throws your balance off and makes you have this-”   
  
“Murder strut.” Clint chimed in. “Those who see it coming, usually think of it as a murder strut.”

Rumlow just laughed hideously, his bloody teeth showing from where Frank’s boot had made contact. 

“Barnes. Why’s this asshole still alive?” Frank growled out from behind them, where Matt was standing next to him with his cane still held like a club. “Just- get rid of him.”

“We need info about Pierce.” Matt reminded Frank. 

“Well we can get it somewhere else, this asshole’s annoying me.”   
  
Brock just laughed again, which made Bucky kick the chair across the room to skid to a stop right before the fireplace. Anger seething through the air, Bucky followed and tipped the chair backwards. 

“Jesus.” Matt remarked as he smelled the stench of Rumlow’s hair burning. “This guy really get’s under Barnes’ skin.”   
  
“Which is why we need to kill him.” Frank grumbled.    
  
Clint shrugged and gestured weakly to where Bucky had Rumlow almost like a luau pig over the fireplace. 

“Look here  _ Brock. _ ” Bucky spit out into Rumlow’s face. “Just tell me what Pierce wants and I’ll kill you quick.”   
  
“You don’t have the guts,  _ James. _ ”   
  
“Alright.” Bucky tipped the chair back until the tips of Brock’s hair singed a bit. “If I don’t make you talk…”    
  


When he gestured behind him, Rumlow’s eyes met three different targets before meeting Bucky’s stormy grey eyes again. 

“I’m sure one of them can. Or we’ll just make it painful along the way.” Bucky grinned ferally and stood up, feeling the other men fall into line behind him. 


End file.
